UK supermarket giant Tesco has reported strong sales growth of 14.6% in the first quarter of its financial year.

Chief executive Sir Terry Leahy said the retailer had seen "a solid start to a more challenging year".

Sales grew 11.3% at its core UK stores, compared with the year-earlier period, and were 8.8% higher on a like-for-like basis, which excludes new stores.

Tesco became the first UK retailer to chalk up annual profits of more than £2bn in its last financial year.

In its latest trading update, Tesco gave an upbeat picture of its performance since then.

"The core UK business has shown continued growth, our international operations have delivered a strong start to the year, our non-food market share has improved and our retailing services have also performed well," the retailer said.

Overseas promise

Sales in Tesco's international businesses were up 19.9% at constant exchange rates.

Its stores in central Europe have done particularly well, with a "strong customer response" in the region, the company said.

"We do expect the numbers to come off a bit as the year goes on, just because we were up against such tough comparatives last year, and I think the consumer has slowed a little bit," Tesco finance director Andrew Higginson said.

"A modest slowing is possible from here on," he added.

Tesco reported a 20% jump in pre-tax profits to £2.03bn last year, while sales climbed 12.4% to £37.1bn.

Protests

Tesco now has nearly one third of all UK grocery sales, drawing criticism from small business advocates, environmental groups, and trade unions.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth is planning to stage a protest at Tesco's annual shareholders meeting on Friday.

It is part of a coalition of eight campaign groups that has launched a website - Tescopoly - ahead of the shareholders' meeting.

The site parodies Tesco's slogan "Every Little Helps", replacing it with the phrase "Every Little Hurts". However, from a purely commercial point of view Tesco's shareholders have little reason to be feeling pain.

The company's share price has outperformed the food retailers' benchmark index by almost 9% in the past 12 months.

But with worries about the consumer spending slowdown high in investors' minds, Tesco's trading update produced a cautious response from investors at the London Stock Exchange.